We helped dozens of communities across North America to launch economic development, municipal, tourism, and immigration attraction projects including websites, social media, apps, branding, marketing strategies and design

We’ve built relationships with 26 new clients representing communities across the United States and Canada, completing over 100 projects

2013 is shaping up to be an even bigger year than last and we are looking forward to sharing more great articles, as well as stories about Yfactor, our staff and some of our client successes.

Have you heard of GrowFL? If you are interested in economic gardening, you almost certainly have.

The Florida Economic Gardening Institute at the University o f Central Florida (www.growfl.com) has become an integral part of the State of Florida’s economic development strategy. Created in 2009, it became one of the earliest and most prominent organizations in the post-recessionary movement toward economic gardening. GrowFL has helped more than 400 companies create 1,400 new jobs statewide. (more…)

The concepts of economic gardening are becoming more influential and pervasive in the economic development field. A large number of economic gardening projects have sprung up in municipalities all over North America in the past year or so. Beyond municipal boundaries, initiatives are being announced at regional, state/province and even federal levels that have the stamp of economic gardening on them. What we’re seeing, in fact, is economic gardening sprawl.

You can see it in Michigan. The state has become a leading proponent of economic gardening, with Governor Rick Snyder enthusiastically cheerleading. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has an active economic gardening program and has been pursuing initiatives that, while not carrying the economic gardening label, are closely related to it.

Economic gardening pre-dates the World Wide Web as a business enabler in widespread use. The web, though, has provided the foundation for the proliferation of economic gardening initiatives in recent years.

Web tools have enriched the ways that economic gardening can be applied. Economic development organizations are finding that they can use the web’s connection-building ability to foster networks that help second-stage businesses thrive.

Economic gardening helps to foster an entrepreneurial culture in communities and create jobs. There is a great deal of evidence to support this, such as research that found that companies participating in Florida’s economic gardening pilot program each created an average of 5.2 new jobs within the first 18 months.

What has not been documented so well, but is becoming apparent, is that economic gardening strengthens the capabilities of economic development organizations and helps them build stronger ties with their business communities.